13 June 1997
The Washington Post
John F. Harris

Security Adviser Lobbies for Clinton's China Policy

Revoking most favored nation trading status for China would strengthen the forces of "self-absorption and xenophobia" in Beijing and turn a tense but improving U.S. relationship with the world's most populous nation into one of outright hostility, White House national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger warned yesterday.

Intensifying a campaign to avert a humiliating vote of no confidence on Capitol Hill in President Clinton's China policy, Berger predicted, "Treating China as our enemy could well make China our enemy."

In a speech in New York to the Council on Foreign Relations as well as in news media interviews, Berger said many in Congress's emerging anti-China coalition are wrong about the best way to help Hong Kong. The status of the British colony, which will revert to Chinese control July 1, has opened up a new dimension to Washington's annual debate over whether to extend normal trading privileges to China.

Some critics of the administration's policy of "constructive engagement" with China, of which Berger has been a principal sponsor, have said that a tougher stance with Beijing is needed to ensure that Hong Kong is not subjected to the same repression of civil liberties that is rule in other parts of China.

But Berger insisted that revoking MFN status would have the opposite effect, by emboldening the forces in China who want to crack down on Hong Kong and threatening the economic dynamism that has both enriched the city and made it valuable to Beijing.

Revoking China's MFN status "would have a devastating effect on Hong Kong," Berger told reporters yesterday before leaving for New York, representing a "preemptive vote of no confidence in Hong Kong's future."

Clinton recently announced that he was extending MFN status to China for another year, and under the law Congress can vote to overturn his decision within 90 days. But the battle will come to closure more quickly than that, and more quickly than administration officials at first expected.

Republican congressional leaders have told the White House they want to vote by the end of this month. The House Ways and Means Committee has scheduled a hearing for June 17.

Clinton has always won the MFN battles during his term, and administration officials and even some critics say the chances are that he will win this year. As a practical matter, White House aides say, Clinton will veto any measure Congress passes revoking MFN, and there is no prospect that such action would be overturned.

But Clinton is eager to avoid such a direct repudiation of his China policy. Losing on Capitol Hill, Berger said, would have a "corrosive" effect on the relationship with Beijing and be an unwelcome reflection of how "the consensus has begun to unravel" over China.

Berger's New York speech was the most sustained argument recently from a senior Clinton aide about why the administration deserves support, as well as the most candid assessment of the public opinion hurdle the White House is facing.

"I am concerned that support is fracturing" for engagement with China, Berger said, according to a prepared text released in advance of his speech, "and convinced that rebuilding it is vital to America's future."

One reason China politics are especially ticklish this year is an ongoing FBI investigation into whether China was surreptitiously trying to buy influence here through campaign contributions in last year's congressional and presidential elections. Berger did not mention this issue in his speech.

Instead, he focused on broad historical trends. The collapse of the Soviet Union, he said, has removed in some people's minds "the strategic imperative for a strong relationship with China." And while China has liberalized its economy, he acknowledged, "the political reforms that many expected . . . failed to materialize."

China's lack of demonstrable progress on human rights under Clinton has helped drive a coalition of liberals in the Democratic Party and conservatives in the Republican against renewing MFN status. Pro-business interests in both parties are lobbying in favor.

Berger said that in the past two decades there have been "genuine improvements in the lives of hundreds of millions of Chinese -- greater freedom of movement and choice of employment, better schools and housing, improved access to information, and a more open process for choosing local officials."

Rejecting criticism that Clinton's voice has been muted on human rights, Berger said the administration "will speak out against the arrest of dissidents" and would seek to expand Radio Free Asia broadcasts into China, including more broadcasts in Mandarin.

But he said critics should realize that "change will not come overnight."

"And it most assuredly will not come if we isolate ourselves from China or cut off our relationship," Berger said. "If we fail to engage China, we will fuel the very inward-looking forces that trample human rights."

On Hong Kong, Berger laid out a kind of guidepost on how the United States would be judging China's behavior. He said the United States is expecting early and free elections for a new legislature, a civil service that "continues to function professionally" and courts that "operate without interference."

Although the term "most favored" implies a privileged status, MFN is applied to most nations by the United States.

Only six nations, including Cuba and North Korea, do not have MFN status, although other countries, including Iraq and Libya, are subject to other sanctions. MFN status means that nations can sell goods in this country without tariffs averaging 44 percent.

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